Wind
by slacking
Summary: R


Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me.

Naruto stared at the sky quietly. The sky was starry that night. It reminded him of countless of things. Things that hurt him or things that made him who he was today, everything flashed past his mind. Some stayed a little longer while some were just thrown to the back of his mind. But there was one certain group of memories that he could not contain. He desperately wanted to throw them to the back of his mind but they stayed. They formed a topic so close to his heart that he knew that no matter how he avoided that topic, it would stay. It refused to budge. Out of the blue, his heart wrenched. He clenched his fist, tears threatening to fall. The cold wind blew past and the teardrops just came streaming down his face without him himself knowing.

_The wind is cold. Just like every night…_

--

"What are you saying?" the blonde's cold blue eyes gave away all the emotions he was feeling then: nothing.

"Your father, the Yondaime, was never dead. He had only lost his memory and wandered around the nations for the past 15 years," Jiraiya tried to explain to his student once more.

"My father," he laughed it off coldly, "is not that old miserable man who sealed a stupid demon in a new born. I never had a father."

"Naruto.." Jiraiya had anticipated that Naruto would have problems to come terms with his heritage but he had never expected it to be this bad. Naruto was in self-denial.

"That is enough."

"You must understand that there is nothing that you can do to change that blood flowing in you!" Jiraiya tried to enlighten the young man desperately.

"Then I shall drain out all of my blood."

"You know that is impossible."

"When there is a will, there is a way."

"Naruto! I will not allow you to deny your heritage or the chance for your father to acknowledge you."

"He had attempted murder."

"No, he did not."

"Yes, he did. The moment he sealed that demon in me, it was already murder. Uzumaki Naruto had ceased to exist since then. The start of the assassination of Uzumaki Naruto."

"That is outrageous. That is absolute nonsense."

"Nonsense?" Naruto snorted.

"Your father had only wanted to protect the people. Was that a crime? You know that it was so heart breaking for him to do that to you too."

Naruto laughed coldly in reply to Jiraiya's question.

"Heartbreaking? I never knew that. How would I? Don't give me that nonsense. Since you don't want me to give nonsense, I won't. But let me tell you something. It was not a crime to have the desire to protect the village. But it was a crime to leave me alone to fend myself in this politically-unstable village. He did not need to be a tragic hero just to show what a _fantastic_ Hokage he was."

"Naruto! I had enough! I do not care what you think, say or feel. I will drag you to your father at all cost!" Jiraiya yelled loudly, fuming.

"Then I guess I have misjudged you."

"Huh?"

"You are just like the villagers," saying that, Naruto turned around and left, "not caring what I think, say or feel. Just like that miserable tragic hero who attempted murder on me."

Jiraiya hung his head low, disappointed in his miserable attempt in trying to get Naruto to accept the Yondaime. The cold wind blew past, leaving the old man there standing with sadness showing in his eyes.

A week later, Naruto had suddenly tendered his resignation as a Konoha nin. The council elders had vehemently refused this. This was about the Kyuubi container. While he was a danger in the village, he would be a greater danger out there. Who knows who would kidnap him and get the demon under his control? There was no way they would allow this.

"We are not in favour of this request," the council elders stated bluntly to Tsunade.

"Please leave the office right now. This is a matter only between the Hokage and the konoha nin. You, the council elders, have no say in this matter. Now before I lose my cool, please GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!" Tsunade roared in anger towards the elderly konoha nins. The council elders frowned in disappointment.

"I had expected more from you, Tsunade," one of them spat.

"So did I," Tsunade mumbled in reply.

The blonde had sat quietly on a couch at one of the corner of the room the whole time. Nothing was shown on his face. It was as if he had expected this.

"Naruto."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade tensed, not used to this formality.

"You looked as though you had expected this."

"Yes hokage-sama. I had expected this."

"Naruto, the answer that I had wanted was not one that is only affirmative or negative."

"I understand, Hokage-sama."

"Naruto," Tsunade sighed in desperation before deciding to go straight to the topic, "I am afraid that I will not be able to authorize or accept this resignation."

"You will."

"I will not."

"Yes, you will. Even if you don't, I will still leave konoha."

"LEAVE KONOHA?!" To this, Naruto made no reply. He had only stared the Hokage intently. It was after a still silence did Naruto reply.

"Yes and thank you for your guidance throughout the years."

With that, it was the last time Tsunade saw Naruto. The shock had kept her so dazed that no attempt was made to stop the blonde man. As he left, the cold wind blew on, heartlessly.

It was funny and ironic to think that everytime he 'broke' someone's heart, the wind blew. Maybe it was his elemental chakra. Maybe it was just a weather thing. Or maybe heaven was feeling sorry for them. What about when someone broke his heart? When Sasuke left? When the villagers scorned? When Kakashi had been biased towards that last Uchiha? Did heaven care? Whatever the answer was, it did not matter to him. He was not going to save this village's ass any longer. With that, he left konoha once and for all, never once looking back. Never once meeting Namikaze Minato.

There was a variety of reactions towards Naruto's leaving. Most notably was the one of the Yondaime. The middle-aged man had aged over the test of time and was looking extremely exhausted. His hair did not become white though. You could tell clearly the resemblance of the two blonde man if they were to stand beside each other. It was his wrinkles and eyes that gave away his mental state. Wrinkles formed along his forehead, showing that he had went through many things over the years. However, the Yondaime made no note to mention this. His heart had hurt too much to even remember this. The young child that he had left behind had chose to leave him behind this time round. When he found out that his child had left Konoha from Tsunade, the world felt a lot colder than before all of a sudden.

As his eyes shifted their gaze towards the hokage mountain, he heard a familiar voice.

"Sensei, it has been a long time."

Yondaime spun around, only to meet the gaze of his former student.

"Kakashi." The Yondaime made no effort to strike up a conversation with the one-eyed man. After all, his heart was with someone far far away. He had no energy to do anything else.

"Funny, isn't it?"

The yondaime raised a brow to this, confused by Kakashi's random statement.

"Naruto used to look down from the Hokage Mountain. It feels as though the two of you were looking at each other. Only that he is not looking down right now…" the one-eyed man ended quietly.

"I am sorry, sensei," Kakashi apologized.

"For not taking care of my son? You need not apologize for that. After all, I am in no position to accept that apology when I myself did not even took care of him once."

"I apologized for this and for another thing," Kakashi replied with a guilty look.

"What is it?" the yondaime sighed.

Kakashi started to move towards the hokage memorial stone. His finger started to touch the cold piece of stone lightly.

"Naruto used to come here before he started hanging out at the mountain. He probably hanged out at the mountain because it would take a longer time for the civilians to climb up and hurl abuses at him. For that, I am also sorry because I did nothing to change that. I was too caught up with the loss of you."

"Excuses," the yondaime snorted. Kakashi sighed with his head hung low.

"Yes. It was an excuse to make myself not feel so guilty. But what was done cannot be undone. In fact, I first found out the truth that Naruto was your son when I first saw him looking at this stone. He was six then, I think."

"Continue."

"The truth was that Naruto used to come here and cry. Sobbing quietly, he would touch this name and asked the same question over and over again."

The former teacher of the one-eyed man felt a tug in his heart.

"He would ask, "Why?" over and over again."

The Yondaime moved to where Kakashi stood, looking at the name the one-eyed man was touching.

"This name was touched by him countless of times, sensei. Sorry that I never told you earlier. "

_Namikaze Minato_

With that, the teacher broke down, hating the fact that he left his child alone.

"He knew that you were his father a long time ago."

It was then when Namikaze Minato decided to chase after Naruto.

After countless of years of chasing, the father and son reunited with the bitter scorn in the younger blonde's eyes.

"_Yondaime_," he spat. The Yondaime smiled grimly to his son's greetings.

"I.."

_wheez.. _A kunai shot past and pierced the older man right at his back. The younger man was shocked but calmed himself down to take down the unknown assassin. The fallen assassin was masked. However one could still tell which village he was from. He was an Iwa nin.

The older man took the kunai out and tried to stop the bleeding. He sighed quietly, mumbling, "So it is.. going to be farewell soon…"

The yondaime was no longer young. Besides his appearance that he had gained over the years, the short and irregular breathing had told everything to Naruto that the older man was in pain, struggling to stay conscious.

"Sit."

"It is okay…. I just need to.. say…everything..that I have ever… wanted to… tell you.."

"No, it is not okay," the younger man had made the Yondaime sit down forcefully and started to heal the man.

"Woah…You know..healing… jutsu…since…when?"

"Since I was fully aware that I was at the brink of death after every beating," Naruto replied stoically. The older man felt his heart wrenched. Because of his choice of the village over his son, Naruto had to… He placed his hand at his heart, trying to ease the pain.

Naruto tore a part of his clothes to bandage the wound. It was not difficult to heal the older man but it was difficult to keep his emotions in check. He could feel kyuubi's anger.

"Could we.. talk?" the older man pleaded. Hearing no reply from Naruto who was still bandaging him, he continued.

"I guess silence means consent," the older man smiled weakly.

"I heard that you knew that I was your father a long time ago. Before you were six."

Naruto growled at this.

"Do not claim that you are my father. I do not have a father that tries to acknowledge his son after committing the crime of omission," he snarled, "you knew. You knew that the villagers hated the kyuubi. You knew that I was going to be detested. You knew that I was going to be in pain. You knew and you just happily_ left _this world. Whether you have been with the shinigami or wandering around, searching for your memories, it makes no difference. You are not my father!"

The yondaime cringed in pain.

"Was that why you yelled at Jiraiya?" Naruto did not reply. Sighing, the older man continued.

"When he died, he told Gamabunta that his only regret was that he hurt you that badly that day and allowed you to leave the village."

"Even if he did not allow, I would have left."

"Why?" the older man asked quietly, despite knowing the answer very clearly.

"You." The yondaime could feel his heart breaking into pieces and it tore him up. He struggled to prevent those tears from streaming down. His son left Konoha because of him. His son struggled because of him. His son was hurt countless of times because of him.

"I would have stayed if you did not reappear in my life."

That confirmed it. He stood up, with his back facing Naruto.

"I am sorry. It was a mistake from the start." He was about to leave when the younger man stopped him.

"You can camp here. You are not in any condition to move around anyway. I will leave."

"So you left all those precious people of yours because of.. me?"

Naruto made no reply and left.

The cold wind blew once more, relentlessly with the fading view of Naruto's back.

--

After leaving his father alone, Naruto found this place to stare at the starry sky. _His precious people. _He refused to ever touch that topic since he left Konoha. He had severed all ties. He was not supposed to remember anything about this topic. He was not supposed to cry. Stupid Yondaime. That miserable old man. Suddenly, a voice broke the peace and quiet he was having. Natruto quickly wiped the tears off his face, trying to act as normal as possible.

"Naruto…Sorry, I still decided that I have to..talk to you..I have to say everything… that I have ever wanted to tell you."

"Up to you."

"I think that as a hokage, it was.. the right thing to do. But as a father, I am ashamed… There are things that… I have no idea how to tell you but… there is one thing that I definitely… have to tell you."

Naruto made no effort in replying. He continued to look at those stars.

"I..I.. Forget it. You will most..probably..not listen…to…" wheezing, the yondaime stopped suddenly. His heart had tugged hardly. His breathing was no longer in his control. His vision was getting blurrer each moment.

Naruto turned to look at him, only to be greeted with the horrifying scene of the yondaime in a bloody shirt, desperately trying to breathe normally.

"Are you okay?" Naruto was anxious. His mind went blank. He suddenly noticed that the starting point of the bloody mess. The kunai hole from their previous fateful encounter with the Iwa nin had reopened.

"But that wasn't supposed to happen! I healed you!"

"Naruto.. When…I sealed…the demon in you…the shinigami took…. all my powers…. to heal. So if I… were injured, no healing jutsu… will heal me…I took extra…care to not…get myself …hurt…To be hurt… after I found…you…is a great…blessing…for me…."

"Shut up and let me heal you! Stop talking you miserable old man!" Naruto was crying, desperately trying to keep the older man alive. He hated him but he did not want to lose this man. His only family..

"No..Naruto…don't try..It will not…work…just let me…say my piece…before I go.. and meet jiraiya…Forgive me for…"

"Shut up! I don't care! Just stay alive! I have not had enough of being angry at you! So shut up and survive!"

"Naruto..thank you but…you know I can't…" the yondaime smiled weakly. His son. His only son. Too bad, he would never get the chance to know him better.

"I..love..you..my son…"

--

_So he decided to abandon me again. _Naruto laughed quietly, with tears forming. _Some tragic hero his father is… Father. Some fantastic crime of omission you are committing huh?_

Naruto paid his last respect after burying his father before turning back to return to Konoha, his precious people. To the place where his father defended. As he buried his memories, the cold wind blew on, leaving a certain blonde hurt this time.

Title: Wind

Summary: R&R


End file.
